Corporate reputation under the European Convention on Human Rights

This paper examines whether corporations could claim a right to reputation under the European Convention on Human Rights. The existence of such a right could have significant implications for English defamation law as it relates to corporate claimants. The analysis in this paper focuses on Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol 1, because the European Court of Human Rights has left open the applicability of each of these Articles to the corporate interest in reputation. While the Court’s case law in both of these areas is unclear, the argument advanced here is that there is no good justification for extending a right to reputation to corporations under either Article. However, given the often-haphazard approach the Court takes to developing its interpretation of Convention rights, there is a risk that it will uncritically extend a Convention right to reputation to companies in the future.